A Mediterranean Forest Research Agenda – MFRA · Forest Research Agenda (MFRA) that describes the...

A Mediterranean Forest Research Agenda – MFRA2010–2020

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Contents

Preface – Mediterranean forests require more research

Executive summary

1. The need for a Mediterranean Forest Research Agenda – MFRA

2. Challenges for the sustainability of Mediterranean forests

3. Strategic research priorities

4. Capacity building and knowledge sharing

5. Implementing MFRA

Annex I. Integration of MFRA into the Strategic Research Agenda of the Forest-Based Sector Technology Platform (FTP)

Annex II. Provisional list of organisations participating in MFRA

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Since the beginning of the 1990s, forests and forestry have become key topics on the international political agenda as

demonstrated by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio in 1992 and the Min-

isterial Conferences on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE), which started in Strasbourg in 1991. Since then, in-

ternational conferences and political processes have constantly emphasised the need to preserve and conserve boreal,

temperate and tropical forest ecosystems. However, it has to be recognised that apart from the FAO initiative of drawing

up a Mediterranean forests action programme (approved at the March 1992 session of Silva Mediterranea in Faro, Por-

tugal), little attention has been paid to Mediterranean forests at the international level, apart from the recurrent issue of

forest fires. No comprehensive, joint international research agenda has been developed to simultaneously address the

economic, ecological, and social challenges of sustainable Mediterranean forest management.

Although the total area of Mediterranean forests (even including ecologically analogous areas such as those in Califor-

nia, Chile, South-Africa and Australia) are significantly smaller than the above mentioned forest types, they have specific

features which make them a unique world natural heritage. Moreover, it is expected that predicted climate and socio-

economic changes will increase the already existing threats on Mediterranean forests on one hand and contribute to the

expansion of Mediterranean conditions to new areas on the other. Therefore, the time has come to raise the awareness

of both the forestry and scientific communities as well as the general public about the complex challenges and research

needs to ensure the sustainability of Mediterranean forests.

The present document presents a common vision on the challenges of Mediterranean forests as well as a Mediterranean

Forest Research Agenda (MFRA) that describes the main research priorities for forestry in the region during 2010–2020.

This document has been coordinated by the Mediterranean Regional Office of the European Forest Institute – EFIMED –

within the framework of the European Forest-Based Sector Technology Platform (FTP) Strategic Research Agenda. The

consultation process has involved a large number of institutions (research and academic, forest owners, NGOs, and in-

ternational organisations such as FAO and CIHEAM) in 15 Mediterranean countries. The participating institutions are

listed in Annex 2.

We would like to thank all those who have contributed to the development of the MFRA. In particular, we acknowledge

the contribution made by the members of the EFIMED Advisory Group: Jose G. Borges (Portugal), Felipe Bravo (Spain),

Davide Pettenella (Italy), Mohamed Sabir (Morocco), Hamed Daly (Tunisia), Zuheir Shater (Syria), Emin Baskent (Turkey),

Vassiliki Kazana (Greece); Americo C. Mendes, EFI Scientific Advisory Board member; Francisco Moreira (Portugal), EFI

Phoenix project centre manager; Giuseppe Scarascia-Mugnozza (Italy), Chairman of the Scientific Council of the FTP; and

Andreas Kleinschmit von Lengefeld, FTP Manager.

We would also like to acknowledge the numerous comments and contributions received from EFIMED’s network mem-

bers who represent different forestry realities and disciplines.

We invite all interested parties to contribute to the implementation of MFRA.

Barcelona, 14 September 2009

Preface – Mediterranean forests require more research

Marc Palahí Yves Birot

Head of EFIMED Chairman of the EFIMED Advisory Group

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Mediterranean forest ecosystems provide multiple goods and services (especially noteworthy is the importance of non-

market values) including an exceptional richness in terms of biodiversity, which are crucial for the socio-economic de-

velopment of rural areas as well as for the welfare of the urban populations of the Mediterranean region. Several chal-

lenges have emerged in a context of global change that need to be addressed to ensure the sustainability of Mediter-

ranean forests:

How will climate and land use changes impact Mediterranean forest ecosystems?

How to address forest and fire management concerns in a global change context?

How may governance, policies and economic instruments ensure the provision of valuable forest goods and services?

How to manage multifunctional forests and woodlands in multiple-use landscapes?

Meeting these challenges calls for sound management practices based on improved and enlarged knowledge, targeted

education and capacity building in order to bridge the knowledge and expertise gap between countries, institutions and

science and society in general.

Forest research in the Mediterranean region is handicapped by its fragmentation, its limited means, and occasional out-

dating and isolation. In addition, the low benefits that Mediterranean forests provide to forest-based industries - com-

pared to other European forests - make it difficult to attract interest and funds from the private sector. For this reason,

new ways to overcome this situation must implemented through: research partnerships, networking, capacity building,

higher education programmes, knowledge transfer and long-life learning. In this context, research cooperation with oth-

er Mediterranean Climate Regions (MCR) should be enhanced to share knowledge in order to address common scientific

challenges and needs.

The European Forest-Based Sector Technology Platform (FTP) has provided the framework for the Mediterranean forest

research community to develop the Mediterranean Forest Research Agenda (MFRA) as part of the Strategic Research

Agenda (SRA) in order to highlight the main pan-Mediterranean forestry challenges as well as the scientific priorities, ob-

jectives and outcomes to address them.

MFRA aims at networking and coordinating research at Mediterranean level, requiring a coordinated effort by the re-

search community and related stakeholders (forest owners, NGOs, companies, public administration, etc) to utilise in an

efficient and effective way the available international and national research funding resources.

Executive Summary

Figure 1. The Mediterranean forestry knowledge triangle.

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MFRA, based on a shared and common vision on these challenges, is aimed at ensuring the sustainability of Mediterra-

nean forests and the goods and services they provide by advancing and sharing knowledge on forest ecosystems func-

tioning, and by developing new tools for management and governance in a context of global change. In this respect, the

most innovative development of sciences (climatology, economics, decision science, biology, ecology, information tech-

nology and geomatics, etc.) should be adopted and adapted by forest science. Education and knowledge sharing through

strengthened capacity building are seen as major components of MFRA.

MFRA is structured around four strategic research priorities – selected on the basis of their intrinsic importance and signifi-

cance for policy decision-making – to provide a scientific framework with which to meet the important challenges ahead.

The implementation of MFRA will allow the creation of a Mediterranean forestry knowledge triangle of research, educa-

tion and innovation as well as a geographic triangle with its vertices in Mediterranean Europe, North Africa and the Mid-

dle East. Both concepts will play a key role in a knowledge-based sustainable Mediterranean society.

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Mediterranean forest and woodlands cover only 73 mill.

ha or about 8.5% of the region’s area. They are one of the

most vulnerable forest ecosystems on earth due to their

marked fragility and instability due to, for example, the harsh

climatic conditions, long-lasting pressure by humans and

recurrent fires. In addition, they are exposed to increased

risks related to drastic land

use changes (while forest

cover increases in Mediter-

ranean Europe, deforestation

occurs at a rate of around

1.1% in southern and east-

ern Mediterranean – higher

than in tropical countries)

and climate change in the region (the global temperature

increase from 1850–1899 to 2001–2005 is about 0.76°C;

while in Spain, a Mediterranean country, the temperature

has increased by some 1.5°C from 1971 to 2000).

Mediterranean forests and woodlands host some 25 000

species of vascular plants, (50% are endemic species) and

a high degree of tree richness and endemism (290 indige-

nous tree species with 201 endemics) with extraordinary

genetic diversity. In comparison, northern and central Eu-

rope – with its four times greater surface area – only ac-

counts for some 6000 plant species. In addition to wood,

Mediterranean forests provide various non-wood forest

goods (cork, pine kernels, aromatic plants, mushrooms and

truffles, nuts etc.) and services (carbon sequestration, soil

protection, recreation and tourism possibilities, water pu-

rification, etc.), which are crucial for the socio-economic

development of rural areas as well as for the welfare of

the urban populations in the Mediterranean region.

In the northern part, the socio-economic changes of the

last decades, triggered by the urbanisation of our society

and better living standards, have increased the demand

for the environmental and social functions of Mediterra-

nean forests. However, most goods and services derived

by these functions do not provide revenues to their for-

est owners as they are currently non-market services. By

contrast, traditional forestry is lacking both manpower

(due to rural depopulation) and profitability (high exploi-

tation costs). This situation has resulted in forest aban-

donment which, in turn, has lead to an increase in the

risk of forest fires, pests and diseases, for instance. On

the other hand, coastal forest lands in high tourist areas

are under increasing pressure by the tourist sector to be

used for recreational purposes.

In the eastern and southern parts, rapid population

growth (around 2% on average), low income per capita,

the marked rural density and the limited diversification

of activities makes forests and the goods they generate

(firewood, fodder, aromatic and medicinal plants, etc) rel-

evant primary resources for the subsistence of the local

communities. In addition,

forest protective functions

(e.g. fight against desertifi-

cation, soil protection and

regulating water resources)

are crucial for the sustain-

able development of these

societies. The main threats

to forest sustainability in the southern and eastern sub-

regions are the over exploitation of forests for fuel wood,

clearing for agriculture and overgrazing.

Mediterranean forests require special attention be-

cause:

(i) They play a key role in the welfare of urban and rural

Mediterranean societies, by providing highly appreci-

ated marketed goods (e.g. firewood, cork, pine ker-

nels and mushrooms) as well as high-value but non-

market services (e.g. landscape quality, soil protec-

tion, water regulation and recreation possibilities).

(ii) They constitute a unique world natural heritage in

terms of biological diversity; however, this patrimony

is seriously endangered.

(iii) Their conservation and management affects the avail-

ability of soil and water resources - key strategic re-

sources for Mediterranean societies.

(iv) Their future is seriously endangered by climate and

land-use changes, which add to long-lasting prob-

lems related to forest fires, forest over-exploitation

and the advance of desertification in the region.

In order to avoid an irreversible situation for Mediterra-

nean forests, there is an urgency to tackle all these issues

through joint efforts around the Mediterranean basin as

all concerned countries are nowadays interdependent.

This implies that countries share a common vision on the

future of Mediterranean forests in the context of rapidly

evolving social, environmental and economic conditions.

In the framework of the Barcelona convention, the United

Nations Environment Programme Mediterranean Action

Plan and the high level political process started by the

Barcelona process in 1995 which has crystallised in the

1. The need for a Mediterranean Forest Research Agenda

Addressing the numerous issues of Mediterranean Forests through

research, requires concerted, joint and increased efforts under the umbrella

of an Europe-wide instrument: the FTP

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Union for the Mediterranean in 2008, developing such a

common vision within the umbrella of the FTP is an im-

portant step forward.

It is also believed that advancing science should be the

backbone of a more structured knowledge-based society

as it is a prerequisite for creating the basis of innovation

and providing the scientific expertise with which to de-

velop more efficient policies aimed at reaching the objec-

tives of the common vision. This implies joint research ef-

forts in order to develop a Mediterranean Forest Research

Agenda (MFRA) that is based on commonly agreed priori-

ties and valid for all countries around the Mediterranean

basin. MFRA has been designed to fit within the Strategic

Research Agenda (SRA) developed by the FTP (see Annex

1) and is endorsed by the FTP Steering body.

The implementation of MFRA at the pan-Mediterrane-

an level requires that research capacities are of a suffi-

cient level (critical mass) in the partner countries. At the

same time, it is important to promote capacity building

and research networking activities to overcome the tra-

ditional fragmentation of the Mediterranean forest re-

search community as well as the weaknesses in certain

research areas.

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The vision on the future of Mediterranean forests is based

on four major elements:

Climate and land-use changes will have a significant

impact on forest ecosystems (e.g. by the increase of

degradation, deforestation and forest fires) and the

functions they fulfil (water regulation, soil protection,

etc) to such a critical level that they could be serious-

ly endangered. Expected climate changes will also

result in the expansion of Mediterranean-like condi-

tions to new areas.

Living with recurrent wildfires requires a change of

paradigm by shifting from a predominant short-term

driven fire control policy towards longer-term policies

aimed at acting on the structural causes of fires and

integrating fire and forest management strategies.

Mediterranean forests can provide a large diversity

of goods and services to human societies, subject to

the design and implementation of new and improved

economic, policy and governance instruments, while

taking into account wider rural development poli-

cies.

Silviculture and the multifunctional management of

Mediterranean forests and woodlands in the context

of the management of multiple-use and multi-scale

landscapes require the development of new decision-

support models, systems and processes.

2.1. Climate and land-use changes will dra-matically impact Mediterranean forests and their role in providing services related to key resources such as soil and water

The Mediterranean area is especially sensitive to any

climate change because it represents a transition zone

between the arid and humid regions of the world. This

makes this region an interesting model system with

which to study the effects of global change on terres-

trial ecosystems.

Climate change in the Mediterranean region is reveal-

ing itself by temperature increase, change in precipita-

tion regimes and more frequent extreme events such as

2. A common vision on the future of Mediterranean forests: challenges for their sustainability

drought, heat waves and storms which, in turn, increase

the frequency and intensity of pathogen outbreaks and

forest fires. Such changes (Figures 2 and 3) will drasti-

cally impact forest dynamics and forest health. The level

of these impacts and the adaptive capacity of forest ec-

osystems will affect the provision of relevant forest eco-

systems, goods and services.

Changes in the region are not only of climatic origin. A se-

ries of complex and abrupt socio-economic changes are

currently taking place in the Mediterranean region. In the

northern part, rural abandonment has resulted in an in-

crease of unmanaged and large continuous forest areas

(with higher risk of forest fires and important impacts on

the water yield), while new urban and tourism development

infrastructures, especially in coastal areas, have increased

the risks (fragmentation, biodiversity loss, etc) related to a

widespread wildland-urban interface. In the southern and

eastern parts, the degradation and conversion of many

forests into grazing and agriculture land to supply basic

primary resources such as food, for example, have result-

ed in land degradation and an increase in desertification

which are affecting the soil and water resources.

In a situation of an increasing population in the Medi-

terranean countries, which will have important effects

in increasing the demand for water resources and soil

availability for agriculture, the impacts of global change

on forest ecosystems should also be analysed in connec-

tion with water and soil resources.

Finally, it is important to note that not only trees will be

affected by climate and land-use changes – all plant and

animal communities and populations that partake in eco-

system processes will also be affected. The current rate of

environmental change affecting Mediterranean forests is

jeopardising biodiversity in the sense that radical changes

in the composition of communities and in the extinction

of local populations are observed. One main question is

Climate and societal changes raise new issues and concerns

regarding the future of Mediterranean Forests and

adjacent areas

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to determine whether the natural mechanisms involved

in evolutionary processes will be able to cope with the

intensity and speed of environmental changes.

Key challenges:

To improve our knowledge on the impacts of climate

and land-use changes on forest ecosystem processes –

from leaf to landscape – including forest biodiversity.

To improve our understanding of the role of forests

in the yield and quality of water resources, and in the

prevention soil erosion.

To understand the adaptive response of species and

their migration capacity with regard to environmental

changes and various forest management strategies.

To improve our understanding of how climate change

will affect forest susceptibility to existing and new

pests, and diseases.

2.2. Living with increased wild-fire risk; act-ing on the structural causes and integrat-ing fire and forest management

Mediterranean forest ecosystems have been shaped over

the millennia by many natural environmental factors in-

cluding fire. However, since man has started to interact

with his environment, the causes of wildfire have progres-

sively become anthropogenic accounting for 90–95% of

recorded fires today. One of the most serious problems in

some areas is the frequent recurrence of wildfires which

jeopardise the natural resilience of Mediterranean forest

ecosystems and leads to their inevitable degradation.

Box 1. Actual and predicted climate change trends in the Mediterranean region.

Although world temperature-change scenarios vary regionally, they show a clear trend towards warming. The

temperature increment from 1850–1899 to 2001–2005 has been 0.76ºC on a global scale; in some Mediterra-

nean countries, however, the increment from 1971 to 2000 was 1.53ºC – a much higher value than the 1.2ºC

predicted by the climate models. In addition, simulations of future climate scenarios tend to agree that higher

emission levels could produce a temperature increase higher than the global average value, further reduce

precipitation (of up to 20%) and increase the interannual variability of both temperature and precipitation

(floods, droughts and heat waves).

Figure 2. Simulated temperature and precipitation changes over Europe for the A1B scenario. Top row: annu-

al mean; winter (DJF); summer (JJA); temperature change between 1980 to 1999 and 2080 to 2099 averaged

over 21 models. Bottom row: same as top, but for fractional change in precipitation. Source: IPCC 4AR 2007.

Source: IPCC 4th assessment report 2007

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Today, the causes of wildfires are rather well under-

stood and documented. Among them, four have to be

emphasised:

(i) the rural abandonment in the northern rim of the

Mediterranean basin has resulted in vast and contin-

uous vegetation areas very susceptible to wildfires;

(ii) the development of the wildland-urban interface, due

to a lack of control on housing, has led to a dramatic

increase of fire risk;

(iii) the behaviour of the public still reflects a lack of

awareness about fire risk; and

(iv) the effects of climate change (temperature increase,

decreased rainfall and the increase of extreme events)

have intensified and extensified the problem of for-

est fires.

In spite of a dramatic increase of technological means de-

voted to fire suppression, woodlands, rangelands, maquis

and garrigues in rural areas or at the interface with urban

Box 2. Climate change affecting water budgets, plant phenology and tree-growth.

While simulation models like GOTILWA+ predict a dramatic decrease of soil water content in Mediterranean

areas, recent studies predict an enlargement of the length of the growth period by 2080 of 50 days for the

Mediterranean region. This situation will lead to an increased demand for water parallel to a decrease of the

water resources available for forest ecosystems.

Figure 3. Soil water content in European forest soils simu-

lated with the forest growth process based model Gotilwa+.

Simulations use a pixel of 10’x10’ combined with climate pre-

dictions of HadCM3 model under a socioeconomic scenario

A2. Source: Gracia et al 2002

Figure 4. Simulated length of the growth pe-

riod (days). Source: Gracia et al. 2002

In addition, higher temperatures will induce an exponential increase in the respiration rates of living tissues

of trees, while photosynthetic responses to temperature are not expected to increase. This may result in a

depletion of the reserves of mobile carbohydrates which are used by Mediterranean trees to overcome the

dry summer periods. Most of the dieback episodes observed in Mediterranean forests in recent years are as-

sociated with the exhaustion of carbohydrates reserves which can be consumed in periods of three to four

consecutive dry years. Most pest attacks are the consequence of this weakening of the trees and not the ori-

gin of the dieback.

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Box 3. Modelling the risk of forest fires

Risk has been defined as the expected loss due to a particular hazard for a given area and a reference period.

The expected loss may be calculated as the product of the damage and its probability. Therefore, if fire risk

is to be included in forest management planning, models for assessing the probability of fire occurrence and

expected fire damage are required. As stands are regarded as the basic and indivisible forest management

units, it is logical to develop stand-level models as the first step of including fire risk considerations in forest

planning. These models must be based on stand variables which are known with reasonable accuracy. If a

model is to be used for forest planning purposes, it also has to consider variables that are under the control

of the manager. In this way, the manager will have the possibility of minimising the expected losses due to

fire as a management objective in numerical planning calculations. Such models have been developed in dif-

ferent Mediterranean countries. In Catalonia (North-East Spain), for instance, data from the Spanish national

forest inventory and perimeters of fires that occurred in Catalonia were used to model both the probability of

occurrence and damage of fires related to stand characteristics (e.g. species composition, tree size and stand

structure) and topogeographical variables such as elevation and slope.

Figure 5. Fire risk depending on the stand structure and composition (altitude 700 meters and slope 12%) as

predicted using the models in Gonzalez et al. 2007. The images on the left represent different forest stands

and their predicted probability of fire occurrence (Pfire) and damage in proportion of dead trees (Pdead). On

the right, the same stands are represented by their diametric distribution (N, number of trees per diameter

class) and the survival probability for the trees represented in each diameter class (Psur).

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areas still continue to burn an average area of 600 000 ha/

year, resulting in significant environmental, social and eco-

nomic impacts (estimated at € 1 billion/year). Large forest

fires (less than 3% of the total number of fires) account for

75% of the total burnt area. In spite of the availability of

more sophisticated fire suppression means, this figure has

remained stable over time. This is a consequence of imple-

menting suppression policies that have not been properly

accompanied by vegetation management, silviculture and

integrated landscape-level forest management. Paradoxi-

cally, effective fire protection without proper vegetation

management leads to fuel (vegetation) accumulation and

ultimately to an increased risk of forest fires.

This situation requires new fire fighting and prevention

policies together with efficient counteracting and pre-

ventive strategies such as integrated fire and forest man-

agement planning. What is at stake is to set up territorial

policies which allow us to live with fires but keep them at

an ‘acceptable’ level. This new approach definitely calls

for a profound rethink of these strategies and policies at

national and European levels, by tackling the problem in

all dimensions including the clear identification of civil

protection and forest protection objectives. Finally, there

is a need to shift from short-term driven fire control poli-

cies, mainly based on huge technological investments,

to the longer-term policies of removing the structural

causes of wildfires.

Although wildfires have been mainly affecting the northern

rim of the Mediterranean Basin, some significant chang-

es in climate and land use are already taking place and

will most likely result in the expansion of fire-threatened

areas (e.g. Syria, Lebanon and Algeria). Climate change

projections clearly show an increased fire risk in the cur-

rent Mediterranean area and that fires will also affect

new areas. In France, for example, the area under the

Mediterranean climate could triple before the end of the

21st century. This, in turn, raises the question of how to

anticipate these changes and adapt forest management

to a new climate and fire regime context.

Key challenges:

Assess the risk of forest fires in time and space.

Plan forests and landscapes to be more resistant and

resilient to fire.

Develop integrated strategies and policies that pro-

vide ‘reasonable’ trade-offs between environmental,

social and economic elements, and allow us to ‘live’

with wildfire risk.

Identify future forest responses to changed regimes

as well as new areas subject to forest fires.

Define appropriate post-fire management strategies

and practices

2.3. Governance, policies and economic instruments can ensure the provision of valuable forest goods and services in the context of rural development

Mediterranean forests contribute substantially to the

welfare of Mediterranean societies by providing highly

demanded and valuable goods and services. The rela-

tive importance of non-market forest goods and services

(mainly public goods and externalities connected with the

active protection and management of forest resources)

is especially pronounced in the Mediterranean context

(Box 3). The economic nature of these types of goods and

services (characterised in many cases by improperly or

ill-defined property rights and lack of markets) causes

important market failures that prevent producers (forest

owners who bear the cost of forest management) from in-

ternalising their full value. As a consequence, some forest

owners do not have incentives to manage their forests in

a way that ensures the sustainable and socially optimal

provision of the relevant non-marketed goods and serv-

ices. In addition, forest owners’ motivation, preferences

and objectives have also changed during the last decades;

this has had clear changes in the benefits that they have

obtained from different forest goods and services.

In the northern Mediterranean sub-region, declining

prices for wood forest products, high extraction costs

and difficulties in accessing these resources negative-

ly affects the profitability of forest management. This

situation, together with the fact that forest owners do

not obtain any revenue from the highly demanded non-

market forest goods and services, and the sociological

changes in the forest owners’ motivation often leads to

the abandonment of forestry. In this context, the crea-

tion of new markets and products to internalise the cur-

rent non-marketed services, the use of forest resources

for biomass as a source of renewable energy, as well as

a better mobilisation of forest resources (including non-

timber products) can play an important role in improving

the profitability of forestry.

increased and extended risk of wildfire calls for new approaches and policies in

fire management

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In the southern and eastern Mediterranean sub-regions,

the difficult socio-economic conditions, the land tenure

systems (mainly public forests with some right access for

grazing and forest products collection), competition from

other land uses (agriculture, urbanisation, etc), together

with the lack of awareness of the value of non-market forest

services as well as the lack of well-defined property rights,

the absence of markets and compensation measures for

non-market forest services (soil protection, biodiversity

protection, carbon sequestration, etc) prevent forests from

Box 4. The real values of Mediterranean forests

Non-wood forest products (NWFP) such as, cork, fodder, mushrooms, fruits, medicinal and aromatic plants,

together with services like soil protection, watershed management, water quality, biodiversity enhancement

and climate change mitigation or micro-climate amelioration contribute significantly to the local or national

economies of the Mediterranean region. For example, for the southern Mediterranean area it is estimated that

grazing gives almost three times as much benefit per hectare than wood forest products. Another example is

cork, which in Portugal accounts for 35% of the estimated total benefits obtained from forests.

Even if many forest services do not have markets and therefore cannot be valued through market prices, they

without doubt contribute to the welfare of the population benefiting from them. Merlo and Croitoru (2005) re-

port that approximately 40% of the total economic value of Italian forests can be ascribed to watershed pro-

tection. Other valuable services provided by Mediterranean forests include recreation, tourism and landscape

aesthetics. With the increasing demand for recreational activities and tourism , these services are becoming

more important. Many studies have been conducted to estimate the value of forest recreation; the estimates

range from € 2.5–11 per visit.

The estimated values of different Mediterranean forest goods and services by Merlo and Croitoru (2005) pre-

sented an average total economic value of Mediterranean forests of about € 133 per hectare of forests (in 2001

prices) – or almost € 50 per capita/year. On average, only some 35% of this value can be attributed to wood

forest products (see Figure 4). This estimate should not be taken as a fixed value since it can vary significantly

in magnitude and composition between different countries. It should also be acknowledged that due to a lack

of consistent and reliable data, this value is likely to underestimate the true economic value of Mediterranean

forests. In a Spanish study, in which the values of different non-market benefits from afforestation of marginal

agricultural land were estimated using advanced valuation methods, the results indicated that the annual eco-

nomic value would vary between € 464 and € 4100 per hectare of additional forests (Mavsar and Riera, 2007).

It is clear that harmonised valuation methods as well as benefit transfer functions are required to value non-

market services in a consistent and comparable way in different regions and countries.

Figure 6. Composition of the Total Economic

Value of Mediterranean Forests (source: Mer-

lo & Croitoru 2005). NWFP: non-wood forest

products; WFP: wood forest products; non-

use: bequest and existence value.

WFP 35%

Grazing 10%

NWP 9%

Recreation 16%

Hunting 1%

Watershed 11%

Carbon sequ. 5%

Non-use 13%

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being managed in a sustain-

able way and fail to protect

them from being converted

to other land uses.

In this context, the traditional

command and control type of

policies used in the region were demonstrated to have nu-

merous drawbacks. In addition, the process of decentral-

ising forest policy and the increased dependence of forest

resources on other related sector policies (biodiversity

protection, renewable resources, tourism development,

climate, etc.) does not favour the process of sharing knowl-

edge of all the positive and negative experiences gained

in dealing with the above-mentioned problems.

Key challenges:

Monetary valuation of Mediterranean forest goods

and services.

Fostering the provision of valuable non-market forest

goods and services (including the financing of biodi-

versity conservation and protected areas) by intro-

ducing new policies and economic instruments.

Analysing and improving the profitability of Mediter-

ranean forestry, e.g. by new markets, products and

uses (e.g. biomass extraction).

Understanding the motivations and perceptions of

forest owners and society at large regarding forests

and forestry.

New modes of governance, institutional reforms and

integration of forest policies within wider rural devel-

opment policies.

2.4. Managing multifunctional forests and woodlands in multiple-use landscapes: the need for new silviculture systems and de-cision support tools

Despite the marked multifunctionality of Mediterranean

forests in providing multiple and valuable goods and serv-

ices to society (see previous section), traditional silvicul-

ture and forest planning approaches in the Mediterranean

region have been wood-based (and still are in manage-

ment practice, with the exception of cork and agro-sil-

vo-forestry systems like dehesa or montado). Examples

of these approaches are the various forest regulation

methods and cutting budget formulas developed in cen-

tral Europe during the 19th century or the more recent

stand-based economy approaches. However, in a Medi-

terranean context, it is very seldom that wood is the only

objective or even the most important. Today, Mediterrane-

an forest management needs

to ensure the production of

traditional economic goods

(e.g. cork, timber, fodder,

firewood, mushrooms and

pine kernels) and socially de-

manded services (recreation,

landscape beauty, etc) while maintaining their protective

(soil, watersheds) and environmental (biodiversity, climate

amelioration, carbon fixation) functions in a context of

integrated land-use planning. In addition, the increasing

risks (e.g. forest fires, droughts, pests and pathogens)

and uncertainty involved in Mediterranean forestry de-

cision making due to climate and land-use changes (as it

has been presented previous sections) need to be taken

into account explicitly in the decision-making process of

forest management. Finally, Mediterranean forests are

usually part of heterogeneous and mosaic-like rural land-

scapes which need to be planned in an integrated man-

ner since many forest management objectives cannot be

evaluated at the stand level or even at the forest-holding

level. For instance, sound ecological planning, fire pre-

vention, watershed management or improving recreation

requires considering areas larger than the forest holding

which will involve a comprehensive landscape-level in-

tegrated approach.

Forest owners and managers thus need adequate scien-

tifically-based decision support tools for the management

of Mediterranean forests in order to optimise the joint

production of multiple goods and services (water yield,

non-timber products, etc) at different temporal and spa-

tial scales in a context of increasing risks.

Key challenges:

Develop tools to predict the effects of forest man-

agement on multiple forest goods and services, and

related resources: water and soil.

Develop a goal-based adaptive silviculture to en-

sure the provision of relevant goods and services in

a changing environment.

Design new forest management models that address

the multifunctionality of Mediterranean forests in an

integrated stand-to-landscape scale.

Develop user-friendly forest landscape decision sup-

port systems to capture the preferences of key stake-

holders regarding forest goods and services, and be

able to optimise forest management to ensure the

provision of these goods and services.

Increasing profitability and implementing innovative economic

instruments to internalise non-market goods and services are key elements

of sustainable forest management

16

Box 5. New models and tools for Mediterranean forest management and planning

A key step in forest management planning is the generation of alternative plans. This encompasses a land

classification strategy and the simulation and assessment of alternative silviculture paths in each stand in the

forested landscape. Such task requires the development of advanced models to both project the stand struc-

ture and define the functional relation between the structure and different objectives (recreation, risk of fires,

mushrooms, pinecones, grazing, carbon sequestration, water yield, etc) (see Figure 5).

Figure 7b. Carbon content in different tree compart-

ments of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) stands in

northern Spain under long rotation. Stem and roots

increase its relative importance as rotation is longer.

Regarding carbon sequestration, a high stem propor-

tion (over 60% at 100 years old) has important im-

plications as wood products obtained under longer

rotations have a longer life cycle while a high roots

proportion (over 20% at 100 years old) means that

the role of coarse woody debris after harvest will

be important. Source: Bravo et al. 2008.

Another key step is the selection of the plan that best suits the management objectives. Such a task requires

developing approaches that may accommodate multiple objectives and help search for the most suitable plan.

Both mathematical programming techniques (e.g. linear programming and goal programming) and heuristic

techniques (e.g. genetic algorithms, simulated annealing or tabu search) may be used for this purpose. The

use of heuristic optimisation has gained popularity in forest planning along with the increasing importance of

both operational and ecologically based forest management goals, which are often described spatially through

landscape metrics. Effective spatial and multiple criteria optimisation to address Mediterranean forest man-

agement will require innovative approaches that may combine the benefits from direct approaches and from

the heuristic manipulation of simulation models.

Figure 7a. Wild mushroom production for different

basal areas and expositions in Scots pine forests

in Catalonia (Spain) as predicted by an empirical

mushroom model. Source: Bonet et al. 2008

17

Box 5. Continued

Figure 8. Optimal forest stand development

(above) for maximising the profitability

derived form timber and mushrooms for

different mushroom prizes in Catalonia.

The study used a simulation-optimisation

system based on forest growth models,

mushroom production models and non-

linear programming optimisation tech-

niques. Source: Palahi et al 2009.

Figure 9. Virtual reality models for two forest stands using the decision support system for Mediterranean

forest planning MONTE.

Finally, in order to implement advanced simulation models and numerical multi-objective optimisation tech-

niques, they need to be programmed, integrated and used within computer-based decision systems (Figure

6). Examples of forest planning decision support systems (DSS) developed in a Mediterranean context exist

in Portugal - the SADfLOR system (Borges et al. 2003; Reynolds et al. 2008); and in Spain – the MONTE (Palahi

et al. 2009) and BASIFOR (Bravo et al. 2004) systems. Such systems have demonstrated that the utility of DSS

goes beyond their complex problem solving capabilities, since they also provide important insights into the

understanding, structuring and effective analysis of options and implications of alternative forest ecosystem

management plans. They may be also very helpful as consensus-building support tools when multiple decision

makers (e.g. forest owners) and stakeholders are involved.

18

3.1. The impact of climate and land-use change on Mediterranean forest ecosys-tems functioning: assessing and monitor-ing main physical and biological processes including biodiversity

a) Rationale

The forecasted rapid and intense changes in climate and

land-use are expected to induce significant impacts on

Mediterranean forest ecosystems and, in turn, to other

interrelated key resources like water and soil. For this rea-

son, understanding the mechanisms underlying the physi-

ological and ecological responses of Mediterranean tree

species (in terms of nutrient uptake, growth, biodiversity,

etc.) to climate change is required. Furthermore, scien-

tific information regarding the susceptibility of forests to

current and new biotic and abiotic risks needs to be im-

proved. This knowledge is crucial to predict the impacts

of global change in Mediterranean forests and develop

the basis for adaptive forest management.

Key scientific questions emerge in this context:

(i) What will be the effects of the increasing tempera-

ture and concentration of atmospheric CO2 coupled

with less water availability on plants and ecosystem

physiology, and community dynamics, including bio-

diversity from the gene to landscape level?

(ii) How may climate-forest growth relationships be

modified in the future?

(iii) Which impacts are expected in the water cycle and

soil processes as result of changes in forest ecosys-

tems, climate and land-use changes?

(iv) What changes in forest health are expected with the

forecasted changing conditions?

b) Research approaches

1. Retrospective studies (including dendrochronolgy,

dendro-chemistry and climate studies) covering the

whole range of forest typologies and geographical

and climatic conditions taking advantage of former

long-term experiments: provenance trials, perma-

nent plots, etc.

2. Long-term ecosystem monitoring and experiments

(sites ateliers) on the effects of global change in nat-

ural and planted forest ecosystem processes. The

following should be established: forest-atmosphere

flux stations; instrumented watersheds; water and

nutrient cycling; different types (from extensive to

intensive) of comparable monitoring sites that ef-

fectively cover the forest typologies as well as the

geographical and climatic diversity of the region.

3. Landscape experiments on the impact of land-use

change and forest ecosystem management on: water

resources, soil erosion, biodiversity and biogeochemi-

cal cycles at forest landscape level; special empha-

sis on bi- and tri-trophic interactions at the food-web

level (i.e. plant-pests and plant-animal interactions).

4. Large scale infrastructures for whole tree and ecosys-

tem manipulation experiments to simulate responses

to changing climatic (temperature, precipitation, UV),

atmospheric (CO2 and other GHG, N deposition) and

soil conditions.

5. Mobile sensor equipment systems to study the ef-

fects of forest management, logging operations and

fire regimes on the carbon budget of forest and other

wooded ecosystems.

6. Ecosystem experiments on forest-atmosphere inter-

actions with special emphasis on organic signalling

(i.e. VOC) and particular attention on polluted atmos-

pheric conditions (O3 and other air pollutants) in sub-

urban vs. natural environments.

7. Monitoring, understanding and modelling interactions

between forests and microorganisms and insects:

symbionts, pathogens, pests as related to climate

change.

8. Structural and functional genomics at ecosystem

level to study adaptive responses to a global change

in Mediterranean forest ecosystems.

9. Networks of long-term genetic experiments to analyse

responses of plant material (provenances, families,

genotypes) to changing environmental conditions as

background for assisted species migration.

10. Modelling approaches at genotypes, tree, ecosystem

and landscape levels to climate change and manage-

ment options. As the speed of expected changes is

fast, approaches based on the modelling of the de-

mographic, ecological and genetic aspects of the

communities’ evolution should be developed and

implemented.

c) Expected outputs or achievements

1. Definition of scenarios of ecosystem responses to

climate change in the Mediterranean region.

2. Understanding management options for CC mitiga-

tion and adaptation.

3. Strategic research priorities

19

3. Selection of plant material that is better adapted to

climate change.

4. Understanding land-use options in forest and subur-

ban areas for the sound use of trees and forests for

climate change adaptation and mitigation as well as

protecting water and soil resources.

5. Generating information and models for forest man-

agement, fire prevention and land-use decision sup-

port.

d) Characteristics

Character of the work: basic and applied research,

knowledge management.

Major competences needed: biological sciences,

silvicultural and other ecosystem management sci-

ences, ecology, hydrology, soil science, atmospheric

sciences, modelling, computing sciences, informa-

tion technologies, geography, etc.

Type of project: small and large collaborative projects

(including third countries).

3.2. Integration of the risk of forest fires in land-use and landscape planning and management

a) Rationale

In spite of all the efforts devoted to fire prevention and

fire fighting, the occurrence of large wildfires has not been

reduced in the last decades. Such a stagnated situation

calls for generating and transferring science-based infor-

mation for improved policies (affecting land use planning,

building permits allocation, etc) as well as new tools and

models for integrated fire and forest management plan-

ning, including preventive silviculture and vegetation man-

agement techniques, such as prescribed burning. Further

research is thus needed: on improving the understanding

and predictability of the occurrence of forest fires, prop-

agation and damage based on (i) weather conditions, (ii)

vegetation structure and composition and its interactions

with human infrastructures (wildland-urban interface)

and human behaviour. Such knowledge should be the

basis for developing new forest and landscape manage-

ment strategies, tools and models to design more resist-

ant and resilient landscapes in a cost-effective manner.

In parallel, more knowledge on the social aspects of fire

(causes of ignitions, motivation and consequences) and

a better understanding of the relationships between hu-

man attitudes, values, and beliefs, and fire and fuel man-

agement is needed. Finally, the post-fire management

and rehabilitation of burned areas has been given much

less attention than fire itself; however, important ques-

tions still need scientific research, e.g. how to evaluate

fire damage in economic terms, how to manage burned

areas, how to manage burned trees, and how to prevent

post-fire soil erosion and water runoff.


1. New technologies and methods (including satellite

imagery) to ameliorate fire detection efficiency; to

improve early warning systems; and to assess spa-

tial and temporal evolution of factors associated to

risks (wild-land urban interface, fuel characteristics,

erosion, biodiversity loss, human populations and in-

frastructures, etc.).

2. Improved models to assess fire behaviour and the

validation of existing models, including the use of

deterministic physical models and targeted to vari-

ous applications: vegetation/fuel management, risk

assessment, fire suppression, training forest manag-

ers and firefighters, etc.

3. Understanding the variability in species/ecosystem

traits, resilience and responses to changing fire re-

gimes in the context of climate change, including the

effects of fire and fire regimes on vulnerable/valu-

able ecosystems.

4. Investigating landscape-scale patterns and processes

related to large fires as well as forest stand manage-

ment in relation to fire hazard, including prescribed

burning.

5. Understanding temporal and regional variations in the

socio-economic and behavioural drivers of fire use

and ignition patterns (with a focus on the wild land-

urban interface), and assessing the socio-economic

impact of fire on all forest goods and services and

the post-fire costs of infrastructure restoration.

6. Evaluating the effectiveness and limitations of vari-

ous post-fire management techniques, and determin-

ing the adequate forest/vegetation types to use in

post-fire forest conversion to promote forests with

a lower fire risk.

7. Foresight studies: the background for policies ad-

dressing the structural causes of increased fire risk

in current and future exposed areas.

Fire research should develop socio-bio-physical approaches and aim at creating more fire

resistant and resilient landscapes

20

c) Expected outputs or achievements1. New models allowing more accurate predictions and

assessments of vulnerability and risks and, in gen-

eral, of tradeoffs between several factors.

2. Tools and management options on different scales

(from stand to landscape level configurations) to

minimise the risk of forest fires.

3. Tools and management options for post-fire manage-

ment.

4. Information on the economic efficiency of different

fire prevention and suppression measures.

5. Background for policies based on integrated fire man-

agement.

6. Bases of comprehensive and holistic policies address-

ing the multi-objective management at landscape

and territory scale.

d) Research characteristics

Character of the work: basic and applied research;

knowledge management.

Major competences needed: biological and physical

sciences; silvicultural and other ecosystem manage-

ment sciences; ecology; atmospheric sciences; mod-

elling; computing sciences; information technologies;

geography; remote sensing; socio-economics; fore-

sight science, etc.

Type of project: Small and large collaborative projects

(including third countries).

3.3. Policy, economic and institutional as-pects for sustainable provision of forest goods and services

a) Rationale

The benefits of Mediterranean forest services are spread

over a wide variety of stakeholders in both the public

and private spheres. Due to this mix and in particular, to

the relatively high non-market component of the total

economic value, improved management and conserva-

tion requires:

(i) Improved information on all Mediterranean forest

goods and services, characterising their economic

nature, assigning values and positioning them within

a total economic value framework.

(ii) Design, implementation and evaluation of appropri-

ate combinations of policy instruments (e.g. juridi-

cal, financial, market-based, voluntary or persuasive

measures) at different scales (local, regional, national

and international) that aim at fostering the sustain-

able and socially optimal provision of both market

and non-market forest goods and services, includ-

ing a better mobilisation of forest resources.

(iii) Improved understanding of forest owners’ motiva-

tion and goals.

(iv) Promotion of institutional reforms to effectively im-

plement policy instruments within the framework

of comprehensive rural development strategies and

policies in order to facilitate a joint regional approach

between all concerned parties and sectors, including

agriculture and rural development, urban societies,

tourism, industry, environment and transport.


1. Application and/or extension of existing methods of

valuation and benefit transfer in order to obtain con-

sistent and comprehensive measures of market and

non-marketed forest values;

2. Development of environmental accounting systems

for forest resources at regional and national levels

with the aim of improving the evaluation of chang-

es in forest resources in relation to the value of the

stocks, goods and services they deliver.

3. Estimating with common economic frameworks the

profitability of forest resources and developing rec-

ommendations for its improvement, by analysing new

markets, products or uses (biomass for bioenergy)

and a better mobilisation of existing resources.

4. Design, implementation and evaluation of policy in-

struments (among them, market-based instruments)

to promote the optimal provision of market and non-

market goods and services (e.g. user pays systems

for the use of environmental services, by the forest

managers or by public authorities).

5. Development of new marketing instruments and

channels for the supply of forest goods and services,

including those based on the horizontal and vertical

integration of economic agents in the value chain

and taking into account communities reliant on the

forest and related sectors.

6. Development of participatory approaches for stake-

holders’ involvement. This should include sociological

research on the motivations of forest owners as well

as mapping stakeholders to identify their interests

and interactions and sharing of responsibilities in lo-

cal and regional development programmes based on

public-private partnership (see the EU ‘Leader’ ap-

proach in rural development policies).

21

7. Development of innovative forest policies in the con-

text of wider rural and joint territorial development

strategies.

8. Application of common research frames with a broadly

based institutional recognition and acceptance such

as the European Environment Agency’s DPSIR (Driver-

Pressure-State-Response) to describe the complex

interactions and causations between society and the

physical environment in forest ecosystems.


1. Full range of economic values of forest goods and

services and cost of provision for different forest

goods and services.

2. Harmonisation of valuation and benefit transfer meth-

ods, including data and procedures for accounting

the non-market dimension.

2. Innovative market-based instruments for the differ-

ent types of market and non-market forest goods

and services (e.g. systems of payments for environ-

mental services, auctions).

3. Tools for knowledge sharing and participatory deci-

sion making that lead to sustainable forest manage-

ment and an improvement of the supply of new for-

est products and services.

4. Integrated forest policies and new governance ap-

proaches to integrate forestry within wider rural de-

velopment policies.

d) Characteristics

Character of the work: applied research.

Major competences needed: forest and environmen-

tal economics and policy; regional planning and eco-

nomics; marketing; stakeholder processes, etc.

Type of project: large collaborative project (including

third countries) and coordination action.

3.4. Forest and woodlands in the context of integrated management of land resources: models and decision systems for optimising multi-objective and multi-actor problems

a) Rationale

The marked multifunctionality of Mediterranean forests,

the increasing risks related to climate change and the

mosaic-like structure and complex interactions of Medi-

terranean forests with other land-uses (agriculture, pas-

tures, urban areas, etc) call for a new paradigm of multi-

functional, adaptive and multi-scale (stand to landscape

level) Mediterranean forest management planning. This

requires new forest management tools based on scientific

approaches and new knowledge in key areas. Research

on management-oriented simulation models (based on

advanced growth models, risk models, etc) to be able

to predict the effects of forest management on the dif-

ferent forest goods and services under different climatic

scenarios and levels of risk is crucial in order to provide

information on adaptive multi-objective management

options. New knowledge on different multi-criteria deci-

sion support methods and multi-objective optimisation

algorithms able to solve complex silviculture and man-

agement planning problems with several objectives and

spatial scales is needed for the development of multifunc-

tional and multi-scale forest management plans. New us-

er-friendly computer-based forest management decision

systems need to be developed in order to integrate the

advanced simulation models, multi-criteria methods and

multi-objective optimisation techniques so as to provide

the required support for implementing new forest man-

agement planning. Such systems will provide important

insights into the understanding, structuring and effective

analysis of options and implications of alternative manage-

ment approaches to forest ecosystems and the provision

of their multiple goods and services.

Translating such scientific capacity into decision support

systems requires a multi-disciplinary effort involving bi-

ologists, ecologists, foresters, agronomists, economists,

geographers and hydrologists.


1. New inventory methods and long-term modelling plots

for acquiring information on non-timber products

(mushrooms, pine kernels, aromatic plants, etc).

The use and development of new forest growth and

yield models that can provide predictions on the pro-

vision of goods and services (mushrooms, pine cones,

fodder, water yield and scenic beauty) and take into

account the changing climatic conditions.

Developing new tools for multi-objective forest management

and planning implies to combine biophysical and socio-economic modeling science with decision

science approaches

22

2. Goal-based dynamic and adaptive silviculture mod-

els to optimise the provision of relevant goods and

services (including key resources like water and soil)

under global change.

3. New multi-criteria, scenario analysis, and group-de-

cision methods to analyse stakeholders’ preferences

on forest management objectives and support con-

sensus building.

4. New multi-objective forest planning models to solve

multiple objective problems considering economic,

social and ecological factors, and adjacent resources

(soil and water) within a multi-scale approach.

5. Advanced optimisation techniques capable of inte-

grating bio-physisca and socio-economic paradigms

in dynamic modelling frameworks.

6. New presentation techniques such as visualisation to

show the consequences of alternative management

strategies to different stakeholders - thus address-

ing participatory planning and social sustainability

concerns.

7. New decision support systems that integrate the

techniques and models (1)-(6) to support Mediter-

ranean forestry decision making in a broader con-

text of land-use planning. The use of demonstration

forests might be instrumental in developing, testing

and disseminating the new tools.


1. New silviculture models and planning models for ad-

dressing multiple objectives and risks.

2. Tools for optimising multi-objective forest manage-

ment and analysing the trade-offs between various

forest functions and conflicting goals (biodiversity,

wood production, water and soil protection, etc) as

well as between different land uses.

3. Improved understanding of the interface between

forest ecology and human systems.

4. Means to address the segregation/integration dilem-

ma in a Mediterranean context and optimising land-

use allocation to address water and soil resources

demands.

5. Tools for participatory and group decision making in

the context of forest and land-use planning.

6. New knowledge on the interactions and trade-offs of

different types of land uses and the development of

integrated approaches for forest-land-use planning

in the context of rural development.

7. Identification of forest management options for en-

suring the sustainable production of multiple goods

and services in a changing environment.

d) Characteristics

Character of the work: applied research, knowledge

management.

Major competences needed: management sciences;

modelling; computer sciences; information technolo-

gies; forest economics; ecology; hydrology; geogra-

phy, etc.

Type of project: large collaborative project (including

third countries) and small to medium collaborative

projects highly focused on concrete technical and

topical matters.

23

The existing gaps in terms of research capacities between

countries needs to be addressed by a series of integrated

and interrelated activities to: (i) share existing scientific

knowledge; (ii) improve the research capacities where

needed; and (iii) integrate southern and eastern scien-

tists and institutions in European projects. Such activi-

ties should target both individuals and institutions, as well

as teaching staff and students through individual mobil-

ity grants for young scientists, summer schools and ad-

vanced doctoral courses on emerging and methodologi-

cal research topics, and joint graduate and post-graduate

courses among different Universities.

In the last decade, in view of the increasing importance of

forest related problems, new forest degrees and special-

ised forestry courses have been developed in most south-

ern and eastern Mediterranean countries. However, the

lack of critical mass and expertise in crucial disciplines,

the lack of standards that might facilitate communication

and interdisciplinarity, or the lack of resources to imple-

ment modern scientific methods and tools has jeopard-

ised most of these initiatives. In addition, the traditional

fragmentation of Higher Forestry Education in the region,

the lack of research as linked to education and innova-

tion, as well as the common problems shared by differ-

ent countries call for a pan-Mediterranean initiative to

bring together the best expertise, human resources and

facilities to jointly develop an international and innovative

Master’s degree programme addressing the new paradigm

in Mediterranean forest management. Such initiative, an

International Master on Mediterranean forest ecosys-

tems management, would act as a bridge of knowledge

among Mediterranean countries that would put the basis

for a strong Mediterranean forestry knowledge triangle.

Within the framework of this initiative, a solid link with

potential forest-related labour markets should be estab-

lished to address their needs as well as to put the basis

for innovative future activities.

Innovation, in addition to research and education, is the

third pillar of the knowledge triangle. Innovation in the

Mediterranean forestry sector should take place at dif-

ferent levels:

(i) at the scientific level, by developing scientific, inno-

vative and useful tools for forest management;

(ii) at entrepreneur level by stimulating companies, in-

dustries and forest owners to be innovative in sup-

plying new goods and services to address changing

societal demands; and (iii) at the political and man-

agement level by designing and implementing poli-

cies and new financing mechanisms that can ensure

the sustainable provision of relevant goods and serv-

ices, while minimising increasing risks.

The management and exchange of existing knowledge

and new insights and information derived from the im-

plementation of MFRA will require a well-functioning

system for communication and dissemination. The main

objective is to facilitate a strong interaction between sci-

entists and stakeholders. Different instruments are fore-

seen: electronic journals presenting practical applications

or know-how based on research results; science-policy

papers and workshops; demonstration projects; and life-

long learning, etc.

4. Sharing knowledge for capacity building and innovation

Capacity building requires a double approach: targeting both the individuals and the

institutions

24

5. Implementing MFRA

MFRA represents a bold step forward in networking and

coordinating research and will require a coordinated ef-

fort by the research community and related stakeholders

(forest owners, NGOs, companies, public administration,

etc) to utilise in an efficient and effective way the interna-

tional and national research funding resources available.

MFRA should be implemented (see Figure 10) through joint

research projects involving adjacent and emerging disci-

plines, and other types of activities related to networking,

capacity building, higher education programmes, knowl-

edge transfer and long-life learning. This will be crucial for

establishing a Mediterranean forestry knowledge trian-

gle of research, education and innovation that will play a

key role in a sustainable Mediterranean society. The im-

plementation of MFRA should also consider developing

links with other MCRs through specific instruments (e.g.

FP7) like joint research projects, events and involvement

in collective scientific assessment.

The Mediterranean regional Office of the European For-

est Institute – EFIMED –together with the FTP secretari-

at will promote the implementation of MFRA as result of

ongoing consultations with all relevant stakeholders and

research institutions (see Figure 10). EFIMED, involving a

network of more than 40 Mediterranean forest research

organisations from 18 countries, will act as a facilitator in

converting MFRA into projects and activities, facilitating

the creation of research networks and identifying fund-

ing opportunities. EFIMED’s annual meeting, which will

involve all relevant partners, will be an appropriate fo-

rum to discuss the progress and make decisions on the

implementation of MFRA.

The main funding will come from:

a) National sources which have and will have the major

share. In this context, it is important to use MFRA

as an argument for increasing the funds and means

devoted to Mediterranean forest research.

b) EU-related sources (e.g. ERA-Net, COST, EU Framework

Programme, MED programme, Tempus programme,

Life+ programme, Joint Research Centre calls, etc).

c) Bilateral or multilateral agreements and programmes

(FAO, Cooperation Agencies, etc).

Figure 10. Implementation structure of MFRA.

EFIMED network & Stakeholders

Countries (agencies)Forest owners (ARCMED)

NGOs (AIFM)FAO, CIHEAM

FTP

EFIMED Efimed AG+ Phoenix

RESEARCH

INNOVATION EDUCATIONKNOWLEDGE

Researchprogrammes

& projects

CommunicationDissemination

Capacity bulding,education

NetworkingAdvocacy

25

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24.03.2008)

Reynolds, K.M., Twery, M., Lexer, M., Vacik, H., Ray, D., Shao, G. and Borges, J.G. Decision support systems in natural re-

source management. In: Holsapple, C. (ed). Handbook on decision support systems. International handbook on in-

formation systems series. Springer. In press.

26

The European Forest Based Sector Tech-nology Platform (FTP)

Research and innovation play an essential role in promot-

ing industrial development and competitiveness, as well

as economic growth and employment - both at national

and European levels. The European Commission and the

major stakeholders in the forest-based sector have recog-

nised the primary importance of sharing common strate-

gies for a better use of human and economic resources

in the field of research and working together in setting

priorities, timeframes and funding for the common goal

of economic, social and environmental sustainable de-

velopment. The concept of a ‘Technology Platform’ was

established by the European Union to promote an inte-

grated approach to research, based on a private-public

partnership involving industry, research institutes and

public authorities. It is aimed at defining common, long-

term research agendas and fostering alignment between

the Seventh European Research Framework Program (FP7)

and the national programmes.

The European Technology Platforms – one for each stra-

tegic industry sector – are asked to define ‘Strategic Re-

search Agenda’ (SRA), providing medium- to long-term

and fully supported objectives for the technology. Each

alliance defines an action plan and provides a favourable

socio-economic context for supporting innovation with high

societal relevance, while preserving the environment.

The Forest-Based Sector Technology Platform (FTP –

Forest Technology Platform), is an initiative of three Eu-

ropean Confederations: the European Confederation of

woodworking industries (CEI-Bois); the Confederation of

European Forest Owners (CEPF); and the Confederation

of European Paper Industries (CEPI).

The major challenge of FTP is to promote the growth of

research in Europe and the development of emerging

technologies. A wide engagement of stakeholder and the

interaction with other European Technology Platforms are

needed to accelerate the transfer of knowledge and the

development of integrated technologies. The production

of bio-fuels and/or raw materials based on biomass and

on agro-forestry by-products represents an important

Annex I: Integration of MFRA to the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) of the Forest-Based Sector Technology Platform (FTP)

example of value added that will originate from the sub-

stitution of non-renewable resources with forest-based

materials in the ‘green chemicals’ and bio-energy sec-

tors. The primary objective of FTP consists of a coordi-

nated development of emerging sectors while avoiding

counterproductive competition (e.g. the availability of raw

materials) with the well-established industrial sectors

such as paper and wood; furthermore, it should guaran-

tee the sustainable management of European forestland

with special regard to its related commercial and social

aspects (e.g. tourism and recreation).

FTP’s organisation comprises a High Level Group, an Advi-

sory Group, a Scientific Council, the Project Management

and the National Support Groups, one for each of the 20

countries participating in the Platform.

FTP-SRA VISION 2030

The European forest-based sector plays a key role in

a sustainable society.

It comprises a competitive, knowledge-based indus-

try that fosters the extended use of renewable forest

resources.

It strives to ensure its societal contribution in the

context of a bio-based, customer-driven and globally

competitive European economy.

The Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) of FTP

In total, 24 National Support Groups (NSG), thanks to the

participation of enterprises and European researchers of

the sector, have already been established and others are

close to being established. The NGSs have defined the

sector’s research priorities for the different value chains:

forestry, wood products, pulp & paper, bio-energy, inno-

vative products and new businesses. The result has been

a wide-ranging pool of around 700 research proposals

which have been condensed in the Strategic Research

Agenda of the forest-based sector. This is why the SRA

27

is considered as the guideline for European Research in

the field of forestry and forest products for the next 30

years – a ‘living’ document that will be able to follow the

future developments of research and innovation. For the

very first time, all the European research bodies of the

forest-based sector – COST Forests their Products and

Services (COST-FPS), Eureka Euroforest, European For-

est Institute (EFI), Innovawood, EFPRO, Woodwisdom-net

(ERA-net) – together with trade associations, entrepre-

neurs and forest owners are working to define a common

vision for the future and clear strategic objectives in strict

conjunction with the Seventh European Research Frame-

work Program. The ultimate objective is to increase the

value of research projects by basing the actions on ad-

equate economic support and on attention to social and

occupational aspects.

Forest-Based value chains

Strategic Objectives Forestry Wood

ProductsPulp & Paper

Products Bio-energy Specialities

1. Development of innovative products for changing markets and customer needs

1-6: Commercialising soft forest values*

1-1: A new generation of functional packaging

1-4: Living with wood

1-5: Building with wood

1-10: New generation of composites

1-1: A new generation of functional packaging

1-2: Paper as a partner in communication, education and learning

1-3: Advancing hygiene and health care

1-8: Pulp, energy and chemicals from wood bio-refinery


1-7: Moving Europe with the help of bio-fuels

1-8: Pulp, energy and chemicals from wood bio-refinery

1-8: Pulp, energy and chemicals from wood bio- refinery

1-9: “Green” specialty Chemicals


2. Development of intelligent and efficient manufacturing processes, including reduced energy consumption

2-4: Advanced technologies for primary wood processing

2-5: New manufacturing technologies for wood products

2-1: Reengineering the fibre-based value- chain

2-2: More performance from less inputs in paper products

2-3: Reducing energy consumption in pulp and paper mills

2-3: Reducing energy consumption in pulp and paper mills

2-6: Technologies to boost heat and power output

3. Enhancing availability and use of forest biomass for products and energy

3-1: Trees for the future*

3-2: “Tailor-made” wood supply


3-4: Recycling wood products - a new material resource


3-3: Streamlined paper recycling



4. Meeting the multifunctional demands on forest resources and their sustainable management

4-1: Forests for multiple needs*

4-2: Advancing knowledge on forest ecosystems*

4-3: Adapting forestry to climate change*

5. The sector in a societal perspective

5-1: Assessing the overall performance of the sector 5-2: Instruments for good forest-sector governance*5-3: Citizens’ perceptions*

* Relevant sub-topics for Mediterranean forestry and addressed in the MFRA

Table 1. Overall structure of SRA

28

SRA Research Areas Mediterranean Forest Research Agenda

SRA Strategic Objectives

Forestry-based value chain Research approaches

1. Development of in-novative products for changing mar-kets and customer needs

1-6: Commercialising soft forest values

- Application and/or extension of existing methods of valuation and benefit transfer in order to obtain consistent and comprehensive measures of market and non-marketed forest values.

- Design, implementation and evaluation of policy instruments (among them, market-based instruments) to promote the optimal provision of market and non-market goods and services (e.g., user pays systems for the use of environmental services, by the forest managers or by public authorities).

- Development of new marketing instruments and channels for the supply of forest goods and services, including those based on the horizontal and vertical integration of economic agents in the value chain and taking into account communities reliant on the forest and related sectors.

3. Enhancing the avail-ability and use of forest biomass for products and ener-gy

3-1: Trees for the future - Structural and functional genomics at ecosystem level to study adaptive responses to global change in Mediterranean forest ecosystems.

- Networks of long term genetic experiments to analyse responses of plant material (provenances, families, genotypes) to changing environmental conditions as a back-ground for assisted migration.

- Modelling approaches at genotypes, tree, ecosystem and landscape level to climate

change and management options; As the speed of expected changes is fast, ap-proaches based on modelling of the demographic, ecological and genetic aspects of the communities’ evolution should be developed and implemented.

4. Meeting the multi-functional demands on forest resources and their sustain-able management

4-1: Forests for multiple needs - New inventory methods and long-term modelling plots for acquiring information on non-timber products (mushrooms, pine kernels, aromatic plants, etc).

- The use and development of new forest growth and yield models that can provide predictions on the provision of goods and services (mushrooms, pine cones, fodder, water yield, scenic beauty) and take into account the changing climatic conditions.

- Goal-based dynamic and adaptive silviculture models to optimise the provision of

relevant goods and services (including key resources like water and soil) under glo-bal change.

- New multi-criteria, scenario analysis, and group- decision methods for analysing stakeholders’ preferences on forest management objectives and support consen-sus building.

- New multi-objective forest planning models to solve multiple objective problems considering economic, social and ecological factors and adjacent resources (soil and water) within a multi-scale approach.

- Advanced optimisation techniques capable of integrating bio-physisca and socio-economic paradigms, in dynamic modelling frameworks.

- New presentation techniques such as visualisation to show the consequences of al-ternative management strategies to different stakeholders, thus addressing partici-patory planning and social sustainability concerns.

- New decision support systems that integrate the techniques and models (1)-(6) to support Mediterranean forestry decision making in a broader context of land-use planning. The use of demonstration forests might be instrumental for developing, testing and disseminating the new tools.

Table 2. Relationship between the MFRA and the SRA overall structure

29

4-2: Advancing knowledge on forest ecosystems

4-3: Adapting forestry to cli-mate change

- Long term ecosystem monitoring and experiments (sites ateliers) on the effects of global change in natural and planted forest ecosystem processes. Forest-atmos-phere flux stations, instrumented watersheds, water and nutrient cycling; different types (from extensive to intensive) of comparable monitoring sites that cover well the forest typologies, as well as the geographical and climatic diversity of the region should be established.

- Landscape experiments on the impact of land use change and forest ecosystem

management on: water resources, soil erosion, biodiversity and biogeochemical cy-cles at forest landscape level; special emphasis on bi- and tri-trophic interactions at foodweb level (i.e. plant-pests and plant-animal interactions).

- Large scale infrastructures for whole tree and ecosystem manipulation experiments to simulate responses to changing climatic (temp., precipitation, UV), atmospheric (CO2 and other GHG, N deposition) and soil conditions.

- Mobile sensor equipment systems to study effects of forest management, logging operations and fire regimes on carbon budget of forest and other wooded ecosys-tems.

- Ecosystem experiments on forest-atmosphere interactions with special emphasis on organic signalling (i.e. VOC) and particular attention on polluted atmospheric condi-tions (O3 and other air pollutants) in sub-urban vs. natural environments.

- Monitoring and understanding and modelling interactions between forests and microorganisms and insects: symbionts, pathogens, pests as related to climate change.

- Retrospective studies (including dendrochronolgy, dendro-chemistry and climate studies) covering the whole range of forest typologies and geographical and climat-ic conditions taking advantage of former long-term experiments: provenance trials, permanent plots, etc.

- Improved models assessing fire behaviour and validation of existing models, includ-ing the use of deterministic physical models, and targeted to various applications: vegetation/fuel management, risk assessment, fire suppression, training forest man-agers and firefighters, etc.

- The use and development of new forest growth and yield models that can provide predictions on the provision of goods and services (mushrooms, pine cones, fodder, water yield, scenic beauty) and take into account the changing climatic conditions.

- Goal-based dynamic and adaptive silviculture models to optimise the provision of

relevant goods and services (including key resources like water and soil) under glo-bal change.

- Understanding the variability in species/ecosystem traits, resilience and responses to changing fire regimes, in the context of climate change, including the effects of fire and fire regimes on vulnerable/valuable ecosystems.

5. The sector in a so-cietal perspective

5-2: Instruments for good for-est-sector governance

5-3: Citizens’ perceptions

- Development of participatory approaches for stakeholders’ involvement.

- Development of innovative forest policies in the context of wider rural and joint ter-ritorial development strategies.

- Application of common research frames with a broadly-based institutional recogni-tion and acceptance like the European Environment Agency’s DPSIR (Driver-Pres-sure-State-Response) to describe the complex interactions and causations between society and the physical environment in forest ecosystems.

- Understanding temporal and regional variations in the socio-economic and behav-ioural drivers of fire use and ignition patterns (with a focus on the wild land-urban interface), and assessing the socio-economic impact of fire on all forest goods and services and the post-fire costs of infrastructure restoration.

- Sociological research on the motivations of forest owners as well as mapping stake-holders to identify their interests and interactions.

30

Albania

Forest and Pasture Research Institute

Association Awareness for Progress

Bulgaria

University of Forestry, Sofia

Croatia

Forest Research Institute

Cyprus

Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Forests

France

INRA Nancy

INRA/Montpellier – Unité d'Économie et Sociologie

rurales

INRA/Avignon – Ecologie des Forêts Méditerranéennes

French Forest Owners Association

Greece

Demokritos University of Thrace

Technological Educational Institute of Kavala

Aristotle University - Laboratory of Rangeland Ecology

Greek Forest Owners Association

Israel

University of Haifa

Tel Aviv University, Department of Plant Sciences

Italy

Universidad de Padova

Universidad de Tuscia

University of Catania

Inst. Forest & Environmental Biology – CNR

Lebanon

Faculty of Agricultural & Food Sciences, the American

University of Beirut

Lebanese University

Ministry of Environment

Ministry of Agriculture

Morocco

ENFI

Forest Service - Service des Eaux et For ts

Forest Research Centre

Portugal

Escola Superior Agrária de Coimbra

Technical University of Lisbon - Instituto Superior de

Agronomia

Portuguese Catholic University - Faculty of Economics

and Management

Universidade de Tras-os-Montes e Alto Douro

Portuguese Forest Owners Association (CAP)

Romania

University of Suceava – Faculty of Forestry

Slovenia

Slovenia Forestry Institute

University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty, Slovenia

Department of Wood Science & Technology

Spain

CTFC Forest Technology Centre of Catalonia

CREAF

INIA-CIFOR

Universidad de Valladolid

Universidad Juan Carlos I

Universidad Pablo de Olavide

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Universidad Politécnica de Valencia

Annex II: List of organisations participating in the MFRA

31

Universitat Rovira i Virgili

Universitat de Lleida

Universidad de Santiago de Compostela

University of Barcelona

Autonomous University of Barcelona

University of Girona

Universidad de Zaragoza, Departamento de Geografía

Spanish Forest Owners Association (COSE)

Catalonian Forest Owners Association (CFC)

Syria

University of Aleppo

Univeristy of Tishreen

Tunisia

INRGREF

INAT

Turkey

Central Anatolia Forest Research Institute & State

Planning Organization

Fatih University

Southeast Anatolian Forest Research Institute, Elazı

Eastern Black sea Forest Research Institute, Trabzon

East Anatolian Forest Research Institute, Erzurum

Central Anatolia Forest Research Institute, Eski ehir

Aegean Forest Research Institute, Izmir

Poplar and Fast Groving Forest Trees Research

Institute, Izmit

Western Black sea Forest Research Institute, Bolu

Forest Tree seeds and Tree Breeding Research Institute,

Ankara

stanbul University, Forestry Faculty

Artvin Çoruh University, Forestry Faculty

Zonduldak Karaelmas University, Forestry Faculty

stanbul University, Bartın Forestry Faculty

Kastamonu University, Forestry Faculty

Karadeniz Teknik University, Forestry Faculty

Kahramanmara Sütçüimam University, Forestry

Faculty

Düzce University, Forestry Faculty

Isparta Süleyman Demirel University, Forestry Faculty

Center of Research on Rural Environment and Forestry

Problems

Foundation of Fight Against Erosion, Afforestation and

Protection of Natural Assets of Turkey-TEMA

Ministry of Environment and Forestry, General

Directorate of Forestry


Directorate of Erosion control and afforestation


Directorate Nature Protection and National Parks


Directorate of Forest villager Affairs

Foundation of Import & Export of Forest Products of

Turkey

International organisations

IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation

FAO Forestry

IAMF - International Associations for Mediterranean

Forests

Plan Bleu

WWF Mediterranean Programme Office

CIHEAM

Foresters Association from the Mediterranean Arc

(ARCMED)

Confederation of European Forest Owners (CEPF)

32

For further information and detailed contact data, pleasevisit our homepage

www.forestplatform.org

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